Treesearch

Valued for timber and wildlife, oaks (Quercus spp.) face many regeneration challenges in the eastern United States. Decades of fire suppression have produced favorable conditions for tree species that grow well in humid climates, such as maples, and less favorable conditions for species that thrive under drier conditions, such as oaks. The Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana noticed a lack of oak advance regeneration in the 2010s, when long-term research showed that clearcut harvests performed in the 1980s, which were intended to regenerate oak, were now more dominated by red...

Rachel Carson’s warning of a silent spring directed attention to unwanted side effects of pesticide application. Though her work led to policies restricting insecticide use, various insecticides currently in use affect nontarget organisms and may contribute to population declines. The insecticide tebufenozide is used to control defoliating Lepidoptera in oak forests harboring rich insect faunas. Over 3 years, we tested the effect of its aerial application on bird populations with autonomous sound recorders in a large, replicated, full factorial field experiment during a spongy moth...

Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky), a wood borer (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) native to China, has been unintentionally and repeatedly introduced to North American and European landscapes as a stow-away in the wood packing material commonly used in international trade. Asian longhorned beetle causes extensive damage and mortality in multiple deciduous tree species and in response, countries in both North America and Europe have adopted policies of eradication. Models that integrate patterns of Asian longhorned beetle dispersal with records of infested trees are...

Hybridization between exotic and native species can lead to negative ecological and economic consequences. The invasive winter moth (WM), Operophtera brumata, uses the same sex-attractant pheromone and mates and produces fertile offspring with a native congener the Bruce spanworm (BSW), O. bruceata, and a stable hybrid zone has formed where their ranges overlap in the northeastern United States. However, the fact that the two species have not merged, despite seasonal overlap of flight, suggests that one or more pre- or post-mating barriers to hybridization might therefore exist. Here, we...

As an Evaluation Monitoring project funded under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Health Monitoring Program, this study had an overarching goal to provide insight into which locales may be at greatest risk of losing their future black cherry component. It proposed an examination of seedling dynamics, including the extent and severity of declining abundance, over 5–20 years at multiple spatial scales. The hypothesis was that seedling abundance declines would be pronounced in the Allegheny region, where black cherry has historically been most dominant, but less...

This study was an Evaluation Monitoring project funded under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Health Monitoring Program with an overarching goal to yield a better understanding of regeneration dynamics during disturbance-induced canopy reductions and help triage oak forests for regeneration risks. It proposed to examine seedling and sapling dynamics through time at broad spatial scales to examine whether forest health issues in eastern upland oak forests affect oak regeneration and recruitment by addressing two specific questions: (1) Do forest health...

Diversifying the simplified landscape of corn and soybeans in the Midwest is an emerging priority in both the public and private sectors to reap a suite of climate, social, agronomic, and economic benefits. However, little research has documented the perspectives of farmers, the primary stakeholders in diversification efforts. This preliminary report uses newly collected survey data (n = 725) from farmers in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa to provide descriptive statistics and tests to understand what farmers in the region think about agricultural diversification, including their...

Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is a foundational species in forests across the eastern United States. Hemlock trees provide critical ecosystem services, such as shading for streams, regulation of water temperature, and wildlife habitat for many species. Hemlocks are also economically important for the forest products industry, especially for paper and pulpwood. The invasive insect, hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA, Adelges tsugae Annand), has killed millions of hemlocks across the eastern United States and altered forest dynamics since it was first discovered in 1950. In response, forest...

Accurate characterization of wood properties is important for informing urban forestry science, policy and management related to carbon cycling, ecosystem services modeling, and wood utilization. In this study, urban wood samples were collected and analyzed for basic specific gravity (SG) and ash content (AC), two important wood properties that inform biomass estimation and potential for biofuel feedstocks. Samples were collected in Baltimore, Maryland, USA across four urban site types from seven tree species commonly planted in urban settings. Results were compared with published values...

Planted forests account for 7 percent of the global forest area, covering 290 million hectares (ha) of land. About 131 million ha of planted forests are intensively cultivated for productive purposes with fast-growing trees (FGTs). Fast-growing trees have been developed and used for millennia to provide wood and non-wood products to rural communities and other direct and non-direct benefits to urban societies. Globally, FGT plantations comprise a variety of tree species in temperate, subtropical and tropical biomes. These belong to genera such as Populus, Salix, Paulownia, Pinus, Acacia,...